As the summer comes to an end, so will camping vacations. While some families and individuals enjoy camping over the winter months, the numbers significantly reduce when compared to the summer months. As a campground operator, how can you increase your winter guest rates? How can you encourage visitors to camp during the winter months, when there is snow and ice on the ground and it is too cold to hike long distances or swim in the campground pool?
Continue marketing efforts
Campground marketing is important, all year long. It is especially important during the winter months. If guests are not currently thinking about camping, they are never going to plan a trip. Many guests may actually enjoy winter camping, but the thought just never occurs to them. It is also important to change the marketing strategy during the winter months. While summer campground marketing often includes showcasing the summer activities, winter campground marketing should highlight the beauty of winter and fun outdoor winter activities.
Advertise warm cabins
You are unlikely to get many campers that want to stay in a tent in the cold, winter months. However, there is something extremely cozy and comforting about staying in a warm cabin during the winter months. Ensure that the heat and electrical in your cabin rentals are updated and can handle the colder months. Offer outdoor fire pits for additional warmth. Then, include these heat features in your campground marketing materials. You can also do RV marketing during the winter months to push the rentals of RV sites. Incentives like free heat hookups can help increase RV rental guests.
Ensure your campground design is setup for winter activities
Placing all of your heated cabins in the very back of the campground is not ideal. Guests do not want to have to hike through the cold to get to their cabin rental. If you intend to push winter sales, make sure your campground design is laid out for optimal movement. There should be easy access to winter activities also, but they should not make it so the heated cabins are further to access. You will have guests that do not care about doing outdoor winter activities. Also, create your RV site design for easy heat and electrical hookups. Your RV campers will appreciate the easy and are more likely to return.
Implement a good SEO campaign
Because your marketing efforts will be somewhat reduced during the winter months, this is the perfect time to begin your summer marketing strategy. Implementing a good SEO campaign now can set you up for strong summer sales. Google processes about 1.2 trillion searches every year, based on the 100 billion a month number released by the company in 2012. Implementing a SEO campaign takes a couple of months to see results, so this is a good winter project to begin. With so many camping websites for guests to choose from, you want to make sure yours is an option.
Design a strong website
The winter is also a good time to work on or redesign your company?s website. According to data from NewsCred, 57% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation. Because you should already have a good SEO campaign in place, you now need a strong website for visitors to land on. SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads, like those from direct mail and print advertising, have a 1.7% close rate. Your SEO campaign and internet website are very important to increasing your guest numbers.
Winter camping is not as common as summer camping. Winter weather conditions can be unpredictable and cold, preventing you from enjoying in many of your favorite summer activities. Campgrounds, however, can still push and increase guest counts during the winter months with these marketing strategies. The winter months are also a good time to prepare for summer sales and set up a strategy that will significantly increase them.
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